Mind Sports South Africa's (MSSA) blog on competitive gaming in South Africa from proto-computer gaming all the way through to the most modern. For more about MSSA go to: https://www.facebook.com/mindsportssa/

Saturday, 9 May 2015

Top ten rankings for Ancients leading up to Mpumulanga

Erasmus Burger at the 2015 Gauteng Provincial Championships

The MSSA's MWEB Gauteng Provincial Championships held on 28 & 29 March 2015 was a hotly contested affair which saw a larger pool of players competing for many a year - even though firm favourites like Elishia Retief, Colin Webster and the 2014 SA National Champion, Jason Batzofin were not participating.

The standard of play at such championship was particularly high with Erasmus Burger (a Protea Team Member of 2006 vintage) taking the honours.

In fact, it was most pleasing to see that all three players who finished in the top three were old Protea Team members.The top three players at the Gauteng Championships were none other than::

Pos

Name of player

Club

1

Erasmus Burger

TMSC

2

Garth Schoeman

KMSC

3

Sean Barry

RPS

Of course the Gauteng Championships influenced the rankings. With Erasmus's fine result at Gauteng - winning every game by the maximum points possible, Erasmus clawed his way up to be ranked first in South Africa. This is the first time that Erasmus Burger, and is also the first time that a member of the Tuks Mind Sports Club is so ranked.However, it is more than likely that Erasmus will have to fight hard to keep his ranking as both Colin Webster (the current World Champion) and Jason Batzofin (the current South African Champion) have vowed to put him in his place.

Other threats to Erasmus keeping his number one spot are Carl Holliday and Sean Barry. Both Carl and Sean have represented South Africa in Protea Teams (2009). Carl may have a slight advantage over most of the other players in that he taught and trained Erasmus Burger how to play the game when Erasmus was still a learner at Pretoria Boys High School.

Thus the stage is set for a good fight at Mpumulanga....The top ten Ancients players in South Africa are thus: